‎”She wanted wine but all I had was a nice expensive bottle of wine… I wasn’t going to waste that bottle on her. She was not ‘expensive bottle worthy’-

my dad, about some unfortunate looking blind date

ps: what a vain mofo (funny, but definitely peculiar)

I want to cuddle with a 6-pack of San Pellegrino. Be it orange or blood orange, I’m not picky.

I’m a bit slutty when it comes to flavoured fizzy drinks.

I don’t really know how to put my thoughts into words. As a fully bilingual quebecer it angers me to think that tonight’s acts of terrorism against Quebec’s first female prime minister will only fuel more language wars. Quebec has been divided this year and I fear it will completely tear apart after tonight’s events. 

Before any of you go on SPECULATING about the possible outcome with this MINORITY government and fear a language reform and another referendum: LEARN HOW A DEMOCRACY WORKS. It’s not because it’s one of the platforms of our elected government that IT WILL COME TO PASS. And I am not referring to one side or the other, I am aiming at both. Both sides need to chill and realize this fact. Not only is it a minority for the PQ but it will be a 3way in the house between PQ/PLQ/CAQ so… I sincerely doubt shit’s gonna be changing drastically. It’s going to be a lot of tugging from side to side and blocking this and that and a whole lot of stagnation with very little results for the next 4 years. And even if we’d all vote unanimously to separate from Canada that action alone cannot come from a citizen’s vote alone. No sir-ey.

If the anglos are voting liberal and the french for the PQ only based on language alone, we are completely off track with our democratic choice. There are far more important issues to be talked about and voted on then “french” or “english”. What is this? Your course pick for next semester? Fuuuuuck this. 

Also no one in their right mind would call for a referendum at this moment… why? Because Charest made a devil’s deal to sell all of our natural resources to foreign countries and is outsourcing the long term revenues. Even the most separatist of leaders would find that to be a bad move at this time. We’re gonna be flat broke in 25.

SO CHILL

I am not Marois’ biggest supporter, never have, probably never will be (IMO, she’s a bit racist and doesn’t support the bilinguals and anglos). But I do not wish her dead… nor do I wish anyone’s death for that matter. The people who are rejoicing in this terrible fate are pure ignorant rednecks, no different than Romney supporters. Uneducated, sadistic sociopaths who think this god damn reality of ours is an HBO series. 

I am so, so very sad. Ashamed, even. 

*forgot to establish context! Tonight our province of Quebec held an election called on by the ongoing tuition protest/student conflict and our government is now lead by Pauline Marois, a woman, who leads the Parti Québécois (a mainly french driven and separatist party). All that aside, it’s a minority government that will see members of PQ, the liberal party and the Coalition Avenir Quebec with the most seats in provincial congress. In a vile act of terrorism, someone attempted to murder our prime minister within hours of her election all while she was giving her winning speech. 2 people were shot, with 1 dead and the other in critical care, and police apprehended the suspect in question, who was carrying an AK47, and yelled “The Anglos are waking up!” to the cameras on location. Police also found more weapons in his car. He had also started a fire behind Metropolis, the venus where the winning speech was taking place. 

Indochine - La Guerre Est Finie (my favourite Indochine song!)

This is where you find out I’m actually crazy. 

At the age of 13 I bought myself a tape cassette of Indochine’s “Un Jour Dans Notre Vie”… I was OBSESSED with it and would listen to it over and over again for hours… flipping the tape and never skipping a song. I had long known about this band and had always liked their music but this album KILLED it. Even now, listening to it on my ipod, I feel the same way about it. It’s an excellent record. 

I have always been a big time day dreamer and music has never failed to be the main trigger of my craziest and most loving delusions. With discovering this album I also discovered the band’s singer (obviously), Nicola Sirkis, and fell madly in fan love with him. 

(this is where it gets weird for you)

I wrote a 3 part fan fiction story using him as the main protagonist where I would travel back in time to when he was a teenager himself (I, 13, him 16) and we’d hopefully fall for each other. I say hopelessly because at some point I knew I had to return to the future and that we’d both have to be heartbroken and that he might also get real freaked out about the fact that I was from the future… So we’d break things off and I would come back to “the future” and he’d live his life and he would then go on to write all of Indochine’s love songs with me in mind. I believe that, at some point, in my “time”, after he had become and adult and famous french rockstar, we’d meet again and weren’t able to deny that we were soul mates but couldn’t renew our love because he was in his 30s and I, 13. 

WHAT A CRUSHING TALE OF PSYCHO. 

Yup. 

Nicola Sirkis, my first celebrity crush. 

PS: this song is NOT from Un Jour Dans Notre Vie, it’s a previously unreleased tracked that was featured on their greatest hits album Birthday Album only. 

May 28th - Montreal

A very powerful image taken during tonight’s protest where dozens of law practitioners participated in the nightly manifestations.

That cop’s smirk. I can’t even come up with words to describe it because I am completely baffled by its meaning.

Is he laughing because he feels like he is above the law and that this demonstration of support seems ridiculous to him?

Or is he, like I prefer thinking, failing to hold back a smile because he is one of the few who’s behind the movement but cannot speak up by fear of losing his job and he’s just rejoicing at the thought of having his fellow co-workers being publicly judged and outed for their unspeakable and unnecessary actions? 

It’s a mystery but almost assuredly not the second stated possibility.

photo: David Champagne

Tonight, not unlike every night in Montreal for the past months, people are walking the streets of our city together in protest. 

Pictured above are prominent members of the Bar Association (lawyers, judges and other law practitioners) joining them on their mission towards abolishing Loi 78. 

To them I say, Thank you. 

Yesterday we saw retired police officers wearing their police vest or jacket walking amongst the students in protest of the on going police brutality that has been experienced nightly.

To them I say, THANK YOU.

Now go bang on some pots!! 

Photo: André Pichette, La Presse

People with casseroles are currently walking down St-Denis, not just a bit of people… a LOT of people, protestors. 

What’s different from any other night???

There’s a MASSIVE downpour right now, HUGE thunderstorm in process. 

I am so impressed and SO moved by this. 

Props to the courageous for braving this weather. 

Fuck the system, FUCK THE WEATHER!

What a police state (province) looks like. 
In front of my job last night, taken by a customer behind police lines.

Our bar is on the other side of the line in what cop squads referred to as an occupied zone. This police barrage was set up on the corner of Sherbrooke and St-denis. Organized, this time, as not to repeat the mass chaos that ensued after riots broke out last Sunday on St-Denis and Ontario. Sunday night’s sight was much more violent but less people were arrested (though more were brutalized and hurt) .

After hours of peaceful protests around downtown Montreal and the Plateau, police squadrons (SQ and SPVM) created an ambush on the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Denis. The protest had been declared illegal from the get go but had been going on incredibly smoothly on both sides, protestors and police officers, and those who took part or those who watched via CUTV commanded the officers for their surprisingly, yet welcomed, peaceful presence. It seemed that everyone was doing it right on Wednesday night. No “casseurs”, no brutality, no abuse of power at the hands of Law 78. Then, apparently, a few rocks and a “fireball” (what is this, pokemon?) that turned out to be a candle or something ridiculously lame were thrown and pandemonium ensued. 

Cops were ready. Police presence had been noticed all day in various locations grouping in usually empty lots. They had a plan. 

Of course, they should have been ready and prepared for the worst, it’s their job. But what happened, once again, was an unnecessary and exaggerated mass arrest of peaceful manifestants. 

They were all told to disperse. And as they tried to do so, they realized they couldn’t, that they had been caught in a kettle all along. Like bait. The authorities pretended to have given them notice and a choice but they didn’t have one. Nearly 350 to 400 were arrested in that very spot. All sitting peacefully, alongside various media outlets who also got caught in the net, surrounded by anti-riot squads. 

What you see in that video is from the other side, St-Denis and Rigaud. You can see a woman passionately expressing her disdain towards the situation and trying to explain to officers what those protestors have been trying to achieve. She was arrested for speaking. 

Welcome to democracy.

I encourage you to please protest peacefully and to not engage in any conversation or debate with police officers. As shown in the video above, stating your opinion can land you in jail. Your voice is better heard alongside the thousands who walk the streets with you every night. We need you on the front, not in jail. 

I bartend at a small bar on St-Denis and I am, also, a Plateau resident. During the past few weeks I’ve grown accustomed to the sound and sight of police cars/buses/trucks/bikes/horses. Having my neighboring streets be flooded with protesters has almost become an nightly expectation. Wether I am home or at work, I’ve witnessed them all. Never have I ever seen but a peaceful one. Until Sunday night. 

I woke up in the middle of the night, in tears, because I cannot forget. 

Doing my job behind the bar, door’s open, people on my terrace… The chansonier playing his tunes. Patrons enjoying a cold drink on a very warm night. That was my night.

Then came the flood. 

This time, they weren’t peacefully walking, they were running and screaming. 

STM busses filled with SQ cops arrived at the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Denis and squads literally poured out, ran out into the crowd without any regard to the safety and well-being of Montreal citizens. Cop cars arriving on the scene driving INTO pedestrians. People on bikes being brutally lead to the ground. Innocent passer-bys becoming victims of a cause they probably weren’t even there to support in the first place. Sunday the 20th was part of a long holiday weekend, many had off the following day so it allowed for a busy nightclub outing for most. Most parts of the Lower Plateau and the Main were packed with, not only protestors but clubgoers as well as others simply enjoying a walk on the beautiful streets of our town on a fantastic night. Hitting a girl in a fancy dress wearing high heels (just one example of what I’ve personally witnessed) seems to be a pretty strong indicative that the police is currently foregoing all reason and compassion when it comes to using force as way of crowd dissipation. There is no discrimination, everyone seems to have become “casseurs” in the eyes of our government and to the armed forces. In return,  in the eyes of the protestors, all cops seem to have become violent instruments of a fascist law. It is absolutely impossible, at this point, to be rational about the situation. It has gone above and beyond the tuition hike stand. It became a social, political and human rights issue as soon as Law 78 was introduced and caused great general despair in Quebec. It is so inconceivable to us, children of democracy, to be treated as criminals for taking a stand that is to benefit the entire province and to an extent our country. In fact, it is so inconceivable for us to have to protect ourselves from those who are supposed to protect us that when we are pushed to the ground for peacefully making a point our rage just increases. It adds fuel to the fire. 

Only a small percentage of the protestors were considered “casseurs” and they were expelled and rejected by the masses before the cops could even get to them. A small percentage that gave the rest of them a considerable disadvantage in the media and public perception of the situation on site. 78 was introduced unjustly because of the absolute exaggeration of “facts” propagated by the media. Isolated events took center stage. Now everyone walking the street on manif nights can be considered criminals just for trying to walk across the street to avoid the protest itself. Old, young, political or not, caught in a souricière. 

Violence and discrimination is inciting violence and discrimination on both sides and I see no end. 

As the red was engulfed by this violent tidal wave of black and blue we got caught caught in the quick sand of the situation. Customers on my terrace, who were but standing up and gazing at the scene in shock, were, at first, lead inside by us then forced indoors by the police. People were pushed, shoved, batons and pepper spray cans were in full view. Cops in full body armor, armed to the teeth, against peaceful protestors. Sure, antagonization was rampant, both parties took part of this game. You cannot even speak in front of an officer as he is in “RIGHT” to use pepper spray on you for opening your mouth. Is this was democracy is like? I’ve seen it in action and I think not. I’ve never been more scared in my life. The sound of their boots on the streets of my beloved city, the smell of smoke bombs, the tears and cries of strangers who need your help. It’s enough to make a passive supporter like me angry. Yes I am not ashamed to admit that to this point I was but a mere supporter in the shadows. Not anymore. 

As I grabbed my keys ready to lock the doors behind refugees of what looked like a civil war right on St-Denis, some stood in awe looking out the windowed door… some sat and cried… most, like myself and fellow bartender Brigitte, stood and sang along with Jacques as he played “Quand Les Hommes Vivront D’Amour” for us to a background of violence that will forever be etched in my memory as the most shocking night of my life. 

Tonight is the 22nd. I am working the bar. We will be ready. I will be providing red squares and tear gas solution at the bar. I will lock my doors in the face of violence and harbor those in need. I never thought I’d have to protect human beings from those who are supposed to be protecting US and that in doing so I could land a beating, I could be fined and dragged to jail without having my rights read, without an explanation, without decency and pride. 

I do not wish to debate and discuss the politics of this grave situation, we all have an opinion on what has been going on. What we can all agree on is that this has gone too far. I have always been a law abiding, respectful citizen. And I will continue to do so. If that means protecting my customers from harm, so be it. Arrest me. I’ll be fucking waiting. 

I hope you can sleep at night… because I can’t. 

Valérie Tessier

This picture was taken in the pre-faux lash era of my life. AINT NEVER GOING BACK YOUZ GUYZ!

I miss my septum ring. 

I should’ve known you and I weren’t meant for each other the minute you stated that The Hangover was funnier than Grandma’s boy. 

NO

I’ve been strangely lethargic and lazy. I have been so busy that once home I just cannot seem to keep my eyes open long enough to be productive. Those who know me would be astounded, shocked, at the current state of my apartment (PS: my sink is full of dishes and there’s dust everywhere… let’s not even talk about my sheets and towels). I am out of breath exhausted. I can’t help but to feel scared of this mind numbing routine that makes me realize just how little people can accomplish with their own selves when stuck in such a tight-nit schedule. Big visions and big words become just that, big visions and words. Nothing more. 

Reality is troubling. 

But right now, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. I am much happier with my new situation, I have a fabulous apartment and I am on my way back to school (officially). I am also planning my first real “lazy” vacation, the Cayman Islands no less. I am broke this week but it is mainly due to poor management of my weekly funds, this month. 

I never thought I’d move on. I did. And I am moving even further. 

So even with my tired eyes and mind, I am grateful and I embrace this energy sucking schedule and routine. 

I also realize that I am amongst the very few who’s managed to get two jobs that I am comfortable and happy with… and I also have the luxury of living alone, with my doggie and kitty. 

BAM. It ain’t half that bad.

Last night, while sleepy… I reblogged the post bellow while trying to reblog a different post (of a picture, most certainly) and didn’t realize my mistake until I read the messages in my askbox. 

sorray